Avoiding copyright infringement

londonblue

It's nice to see NicheIQ is now finding topics for me to write about. I'm very conscious to not infringe copyright on my site, even though this does limit what I can do in terms of tutorials. Is it best to hide the suggestions which could be flagged if I publish them?

Mark_P

Hey!

Thanks for reaching out. Topic suggestions simply provides you with automated research to identify publication topics that add value and relevance specific to your domain. This should not affect copyright.

Initially, the topics with the most potential are on top. Additionally, the “Competitors Overview” and "Competitors List" tabs provides a snapshot of the top three competing domains with the most topic overlap and also the domains that are consistently ranking better, so you can use this if you are concerned about copyright.

londonblue

Sorry, I just meant that if I write about some of the topics suggested I will likely end up infringing copyright (for example, learning a particular pop song).

APerez

londonblue I believe it should be ok if what I am understanding that you want to do is correct. If you are, for instance, analyzing a line from a song and using a verse in the article, you are worried that might be copyright infringement? I believe if it's just not a straight copy and paste with no other content in the article in it, then it shouldn't be a problem.

londonblue

APerez It would more likely be providing sheet music/chords plus instructions/tutorial on how to play the music, broken down into sections or possibly providing a much simplified version.

I think the teaching/tutorial area is a bit of a grey one because some say it falls under fair use, however publishing the music of a copyright would infringe on the music manuscript publisher, which is why in the past I've done it with things which are out of copyright/public domain.

I know when put up things on YouTube with a copyright strike, sometimes the rights holder allows you to continue to use the content but they take any ad revenue. I am not sure it's so clear cut on an independent website. They could argue I am profiting from publishing something I don't have the right to share. Or Google could drop my account for publishing copyright material.

Anyway, I have plenty of suggestions and my own editorial calendar which don't have any grey areas so plenty to be getting on with 🙂

APerez

londonblue Yeah that is a pretty grey area in that case. Probably better to play it safe than be sorry later on with copyright situations.